Iran delivered a new proposal for peace talks with the US via mediator Pakistan, state media reported Friday, with negotiations between the two sides frozen despite a weeks-long ceasefire. The text of the proposal was handed to Islamabad on Thursday evening, the IRNA news agency reported.
In the meantime, Iran has maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off vast amounts of oil, gas and fertiliser from the world economy, while the United States has imposed a counterblockade on Iranian ports.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that US President Donald Trump had told security officials to prepare for the blockade to last months, causing oil prices to spike.
Despite the failure to negotiate an end to the war, the ceasefire has held. On Friday, judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, a senior figure and well-respected cleric, said “the Islamic Republic has never shied away from negotiations”.
But in yet another sign that finding a compromise may prove difficult, Ejei said “we certainly do not accept imposition”, in a video shared by the judiciary’s Mizan Online website. Tehran, though, does not want a return to war he said.
